"We've finally got there, and we're finally ready to go," Macerich development vice president Jacob Knudsen told the Denver Gazette back when HiFi broke ground in the summer of 2024. Two years later, that sentence is still doing a lot of work. Ask around Broomfield this September and you'll hear the same three names on repeat: Shake Shack, Pindustry, the apartments going up by the AMC. People talk about them like they're a few weeks out. They're not. They're 2027.
What's actually different at FlatIron Crossing right now is smaller, less photogenic, and easy to miss if you're only half paying attention to the mall you've driven past for a decade. It's worth sorting out which is which, because the gap between the story and the calendar is exactly where a resident ends up disappointed on a Saturday afternoon.
What's Actually Open Right Now
Inside the existing mall, the turnover has been real and it's already walkable. Anthropologie and the LEGO Store are both open on the lower level. Victoria's Secret, Lululemon, and Bath & Body Works have all moved into larger, renovated footprints this year, part of what Macerich leasing executives have described as a deliberate push to make the property feel current rather than stuck in its early-2000s layout.
The next wave lands before the snow does. SweetPlay, an indoor play space near Crate & Barrel built for younger kids, is set to open this fall. Warby Parker and Garage are both slated for fall openings as well, according to the mall's own leasing updates. Levi's and Abercrombie & Fitch, which Colorado Biz and local coverage flagged for spring and summer 2026 target dates, are already trading.
None of this is the headline redevelopment. It's routine retail churn, the kind every regional mall goes through. But it's the part you can actually walk into this weekend, which puts it in a different category than everything still fenced off behind construction barriers.
What's Still 2027, Not 2026
The HiFi district, the 25-acre outdoor build-out that's supposed to turn the area around the AMC into a walkable neighborhood of shops, restaurants, and apartments, is under construction. It is not open, and nothing in the current permitting or leasing record suggests it will be before 2027.
| Project | Status as of September 2026 | Opening |
|---|---|---|
| Novel HiFi (347-unit apartment community) | Under construction, broke ground fall 2025 | 2027 |
| Pindustry (bowling, arcade, rooftop deck) | Signed as anchor tenant, not built out | Early 2027 |
| Shake Shack (Broomfield's first location) | Announced, part of HiFi restaurant lineup | 2027 |
| Blue Sushi Sake Grill | Announced, first north-metro location | 2027 |
| Memoir – An American Grill | Announced, first-to-Colorado concept | 2027 |
| Food court plaza (inside existing mall footprint) | Broke ground March 24, 2026 | Under construction |
That last line matters because it's the piece of visible progress people are probably reacting to. Construction fencing went up around the food court plaza in late March, and it's reasonable to see cranes and assume the bigger project is close behind. It isn't. The plaza is a separate, earlier phase, and the anchor tenants everyone's actually excited about, the bowling alley, the apartments, the new restaurants, are still a year or more out according to every source tracking the project, from Macerich's own investor materials to trade coverage in the Colorado Real Estate Journal and ICSC.
Arista Already Built the Thing HiFi Is Promising
Here's the part that doesn't get said out loud: two miles away, Broomfield already has a working version of what HiFi is trying to become. Arista, the mixed-use district that grew up around the light rail station, paired restaurants with residences years ago, and the restaurant row there isn't a rendering. It's open tonight.
Hickory & Ash, the modern American steakhouse from the Kevin Taylor Restaurant Group, has been serving hickory-grilled, Colorado-sourced plates at 8001 Arista Place since the development matured, with beef supplied exclusively by Aspen Ridge Ranch. A few doors down, Vinca pours European-leaning wine lists with a standing Wednesday Wine Night, bottles from $25. Masa Cocina Mexicana, also under the Kevin Taylor umbrella, and Arista Deli & Coffee, running since 2020 on scratch-made sandwiches and a locally famous ice cream line, round out a walkable strip that residents already treat as a default answer to "where should we eat."
The comparison isn't a coincidence. It's the same formula HiFi is chasing: restaurants next to housing, outdoor gathering space, enough density to keep a block busy after 6 p.m. Arista got there first, on a smaller footprint, without the multi-year construction timeline. If you're wondering what HiFi will feel like once it's finished, Arista on a Wednesday night is the closest available preview.
The Real September Calendar
None of the events actually filling Broomfield's calendar this month are happening at either construction site, which tells you something about where the neighborhood's day-to-day life is really centered right now.
The Old Man Bar hosts the 34th Annual Rick-O-SalsOff on Saturday, September 5th, a salsa competition that's been running long enough to predate most of the retail names on this list, with tasting and voting starting at noon and a new championship belt on the line this year.
Hickory & Ash is holding a Taste of France Wine Dinner on Thursday, September 10th, starting at 6 p.m., a one-night pairing menu that plays to the same French-leaning wine sensibility Vinca built its Wednesday nights around.
And Broomfield Days, the city's largest annual event, runs Sept. 18-20 this year, with the flagship Saturday programming at Midway Park including a Rotary Club pancake breakfast and a headline set from Nashville-based singer-songwriter Wrenn, who cut her teeth performing around the Front Range before her sound landed in the documentary Tri Me: The Siri Lindley Story.
None of these require the HiFi apartments to be built or the Pindustry lease to close. They're happening on the calendar you already have.
Why the Gap Matters More Than the Renderings
The instinct to conflate "under construction" with "almost open" is understandable. Macerich has been talking about HiFi since 2021, city council got briefed on it in 2025, and the food court plaza fencing makes the whole project feel imminent. But the tenants people are most excited about, the ones with real drawing power like Shake Shack and Pindustry, are locked to a 2027 delivery window across every source tracking the project, from the developer's own investor releases to trade press coverage through mid-2026.
What's real this fall is smaller: a play space, a couple of apparel brands, an eyewear shop, and a mall interior that finally looks like 2026 instead of 2006. What's already excellent, and has been for a while, is two miles down the road at Arista, where the dining-next-to-living model HiFi is spending three years and hundreds of millions of dollars to build has been open for business the entire time.
If you live here, the practical move is simple. Go to Arista for dinner this week. Watch the fall lineup at the mall roll in one storefront at a time. And treat anything labeled 2027 as exactly that, no matter how finished the construction fence makes it look.
Broomfield's growth story is genuinely interesting, but only if you're tracking the right timeline. For readers thinking further ahead about how a changing corridor like this one affects home values, resale timing, or where to buy relative to a project like HiFi, Chad Nash works with Denver-area buyers and sellers who want that kind of long-view read on a neighborhood before they act on it. Begin with a Strategic Conversation.
